- Internet statement 8/99 from 26.03.1999 -
NATO is conducting heavy air strikes against Yugoslavia, is deploying its heavy war machinery in order to force this country to its knees.they turn black into white!This is about no other point but NATO's demand that NATO, in connection with the struggle in Kosovo, can station troops under its own control there on Serbia's territory.
For no other reason but Serbia's refusal of this occupation upon its own territory, Serbia is called "aggressor" and made responsible for the attacks which NATO is massively conducting against the Serbian and Yugoslavian territory.
This is a political perversion, characterized by unrestrained military arrogance, which manifests itself as sheer military dictate, as brute force.
The media are reporting about that in an incredibly twisted manner which however does in this matter not occur for the first time. Our whole state, the Federal Republic of Germany, once again proves to be completely included in NATO, as most of the other European states acting in a similar way.
Even certain conservative politicians and journalists close to NATO are stating that the proceeding is incompatible with international law, with the UN charter and the NATO charter itself. In spite of this FRG politicians of different sorts assert that it is the case of aggression from the part of Yugoslavia. Turn black into white. Indeed, the case of aggression is unequivocal, in this respect these confessions are macabrely true, even though in a sense completely different from what those people strive to pretend.
It is the return of the plain law of the jungle in international politics which started with the actions of March, 24, 1999. Even the formal facade of the UN which anyway is under control by the US and the big powers does no longer find consideration. The principle that the attack on another state would be justified because, as it is said, human rights in the Kosovo were violated, would if consistently applied, lead to a terrible mess in the world - almost every state could make war against another one. Besides, the US' today's clients, the KLA-people, themselves are not at all prissy in actions of underhanded murder and terrorism. There is no ground to commit aggression against Yugoslavia and Serbia because of this struggle.
The conflict in Kosovo
The development of this conflict, without doubt, has complicated historical foundations. Serbia is the nation which particularly in the Southern Balkans has won tremendous merits in the driving back of the Turkish rule. This Turkish rule had set back the development of these nations by several centuries. Albania, which during the 16th century also knew an uprising against the Turkish rule, later on has acted the role of a handyman of the Turkish rule, until the end of the 19th century. Albanian troops for a long time were among those who served in the frontmost position in the subjugation of other nations by the Osmanian empire.
The relation between the demographic shares within Kosovo shifted in the past, in any case also because of these factors, in favor of the Albanian population and to the disadvantage of the Serbs. Also the Serbs' reproaches of Albanian chauvinism against the Kosovo administration which formerly was dominated by the Albanians, were justified. Within the autonomous province of Kosovo the Serbs were more and more forced out, deliberately and in a racist manner. Later on this led to a massive reaction of the Serbian state against the Kosovo-Albanians.
These historic facts of a gradual forcing-out of the Serbs, the use of a former harming Osmanian rule lasting for centuries, do constitute a factor which still today matters. On the whole one can say that the Kosovo question is complex and no reason for NATO to lead air strikes against Serbia in a terroristic manner. The conflict between the Kosovo-Albanians and the Serbs must not in any way one-sidedly be interpreted to the disadvantage of the Serbs. Rather we have to see the true reason of the attack in NATO's basic intention to introduce the principle that, for the protection of the international exploitation, it can intervene in any part of the world as it likes. It is this background upon which also all the statements are to be seen.
Under these circumstances we cannot but call on the soldiers, in particular the pilots, of the German Bundeswehr as well as those of all other NATO countries, to distance themselves from this war. This is no just war, this is a war of aggression, a crime, and the carrying out of commands becomes a crime itself in this war.
One can also state that Serbia and, of course, the whole of Yugoslavia, justly fights back. It has a right,
a) to repel these attacks,
b) to strike against the bases from which the attacks are led or supported,
c) apart from that, all soldiers of the countries participating in these aggressive actions can, of course, automatically become targets of this war.
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Our group in 1991/2 and later on has decidedly fought the brutal measures taken by the Serbian nationalists in East Slavonia and Bosnia. This also at that time was directed against the generally predominant current in the beginning of this war. Today we decidedly refute NATO's intention to foster the dubious KLA which not without justification is mentioned in connection with criminal organizations. NATO's intention to push through its own presence upon a foreign territory by NATO air strikes and perhaps even by ground troops is sheer aggression, is immediate imperialism and terrorism on a large scale.
Our press is, as everybody knows, "pluralistic". It is able to to chat, to talk, to comment and to make scornful and blackmailing remarks in hundreds of variations. But they are same in the core point, in supporting NATO's strategy, and this in such a penetratingly uniform and constant way that also here it is no exaggeration to speak of a guided propaganda.
The raid by such a huge coalition of countries as NATO, with the biggest military power, the US, in the lead and the FRG as the zealous lackey, under the leadership of the Social Democrats/Greens coalition, against a people of 10 millions, also is a morally disgusting action. One can be certain that in the whole world the sympathies for Serbia, despite several condemnations from earlier epochs, will grow.
If NATO should succeed in creating, by its military superiority, a whatsoever Kosovo state under the leadership of the KLA, they won't enjoy their own product. This state won't have viability. The Serbs are right pointing to the expectation that this state will be an international center of drug dealing and other shady activities. But with regard to Western society even the support for such forces wouldn't be astonishing, after the experiences of the past 30 years.
It is also necessary to point to the fact that in Albania itself, after the formerly communist country had degenerated during the eighties and state power had collapsed, sheer gang-egoism and the most archaic currents erupted. Instead of solving these problems, instead of being content with an acceptable autonomy status, one is intervening in this way, already previously by supporting the KLA, and despite of contradictory declarations, is working for a so-called independent Kosovo, resp. a Kosovo as a component of the remaining Albania which is unable to solve its own problems.
Therefore the military raids by NATO are to be evaluated only in the sense that here the principle of the right of NATO intervention forces wherever NATO dislikes something, shall be established, also for the future and for other regions. This is the true reason and the true background of this action, and therefore besides this war in fact there are more actions to be expected, as in the Caucasus or in Africa, for instance.
Under these conditions we are strictly in favor of a failure of the NATO coalition in this war and of an immediate retreat of all NATO soldiers and particularly air forces from this region, of the abandonment of the action. The Kosovo Albanians must attempt to get rid of the KLA and to arrive at a reasonable political representation.
Especially with regard to the fact that there are to be expected much bigger NATO terrorist actions in different regions of the world, already now this kind of action, independently from certain regional problems, must be fought decidedly. There is no greater nonsense than establishing now, for the sake of the refugees' fate there, a war mentality and war politics which in reality will demand a hundred, a thousand and perhaps even a ten thousand times greater number of victims.
(quick translation)Editorial staff of Neue Einheit
26.3.99